A 21-year-old man from Fort Collins with family ties to the Ord area was able to survive an avalanche that killed his older brother on Saturday, January 21st.
Jordan and Tyler Lundstedt, had been snowmobiling in an area near Steamboat Springs and Walden that is closed to all vehicles except snowmobiles in the spring and winter months. The brothers snowmobiles had become stuck forcing the two to walk back at night when an avalanche hit them just below the tree line.
“The brother that survived was half-buried and he dug himself out. They both were wearing avalanche beacons, so the brother knew where his other brother was and found him and dug him out as soon as possible,” Stated Jackson County Sheriff Scott Fischer to TV station CBS4 in Denver, CO.
Jordan Lundstedt built a snow cave and covered himself with a survival blanket to stay alive for two nights. Tyler had been buried beneath two to three feet of snow and was not alive when his brother dug him out. On Sunday Jordan text-ed friends for help, and they called 911. Search and rescue teams were finally able to locate Jordan and his brother’s body Monday afternoon after having to stop their search due to the dangers of another avalanche.
Avalanches have taken the lives of four people in Colorado since Wednesday with all but one of the deaths occurring outside of ski terrain.
The Director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center Ethan Greene said that though ski resorts do “an amazing job of reducing the risk of avalanches and they are the safest place to ski,” they cannot eliminate the risk of avalanches.
Photos courtesy of CBS4 Denver CO
